Sensing radio frequency (RF) energy or signals is a technique that is often employed by electronics devices to ascertain the quality of an electromagnetic environment. The electronic device may identify the channels on which the electronic device detects (or “sees”) transmission activity of other devices and corresponding signal strengths. This technique is also called RF sensing or spectrum sensing. Spectrum sensing is often used by electronic devices to detect undesired signals or interference within a specific frequency range to qualify potential interference and mitigate its effects (e.g., by selecting a channel with minimal interference).
In one exemplary situation, in channels where high power devices such as TV transmitters and low power devices such as television band radio devices (TVBDs) co-exist to share the spectrum, the TVBDs perform sensing of the environment to determine signal strengths on various channels. However, such sensing presents challenges in terms of attempting to accurately portray the spectrum environment.
Also, the ability of the electronic device to share sensing data with other devices or networks is limited. For example, sensing data generated by one device often is not useful to other devices due to difference between the devices, such as differences in how sensing measurements are made (e.g., differences in sensing bandwidth resolution), antenna pattern, antenna gain, adjacent channel blocking performance, etc. Also, local obstructions may affect one device, but not another device. As such, spectrum sensing measurements are relative and the sensing data generated by one device tends to only be useful for the device making the measurement.